Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting on for midnight, so we can proceed with a new Magic Monday. Ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. Any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer. (Any question received after then will not get an answer, and will likely just be deleted.) If you're in a hurry, or suspect you may be the 143,916th person to ask a question, please check out the very rough version 1.0 of The Magic Monday FAQ here.

The illustration? A Rosicrucian emblem from the Societas Rosicruciana in America (SRIA). It depicts the process of prayer. The outermost circle is the Absolute, the ultimate impersonal godhead; the large triangle is the Supreme Being; the smaller triangle is the Solar Logos, the cross is the Christos, and the rose is the individual soul, which is rooted in the Absolute but blossoms in the world of manifestation. The arrows show spiritual influences flowing in from each of these toward the individual soul. 

I've had several people ask about tipping me for answers here, and though I certainly don't require that I won't turn it down. You can use the button above to access my online tip jar. If you're interested in political and economic astrology, or simply prefer to use a subscription service to support your favorite authors, you can find my Patreon page here and my SubscribeStar page here. 

 

I've also had quite a few people over the years ask me where they should buy my books, and here's the answer. Bookshop.org is an alternative online bookstore that supports local bookstores and authors, which a certain other gargantuan corporation doesn't, and I now have a shop there, which you can check out here. Please consider patronizing it if you'd like to purchase any of my books online.

And don't forget to look up your Pangalactic New Age Soul Signature at CosmicOom.com.

With that said, have at it!

***This Magic Monday is now closed (that is, any further attempts to ask questions will be deleted without mercy and without a response). See you next week!***

***Um, folks, closed means CLOSED. I will be deleting any further attempts to post to this entry.***

Comments

Divination on Breaking the Egg

[(Anonymous)]

I was recently consider committing to practicing the Heathen Golden Dawn rituals you detail here. I had started doing the LBRP and was considering taking up the Middle Pillar soon, but I remembered you talking about how that's generally the point at which you "break the egg" and commit yourself to living a magical life. So did a geomancy divination:

Q: Should I "break the the egg," magically?

1st House: Puer
2nd House: Caput Draconis
3rd House: Tristitia
4th House: Aquisitio
5th House: Amissio
6th House: Puer
7th House: Rubeus
8th House: Puer
9th House: Amissio
10th House: Puer
11th House: Caput Draconis
12th House: Carcer

RW: Caput Draconis
LW: Cauda Draconis
Judge: Carcer

Looking at the 1st and 8th house, I have perfection by occupation: both Puer, suggesting the answer is "Yes!" However, the Court seems to be issuing a warning: once you do this, this is going to be for the long haul (Caput to Carcer to Cauda), so you might want to wait (Carcer).

I cast the Reconciler, which is Rubeus, which seems like it's not a good figure for the long term result. That, and the figure occupying the 1st and 8th is Puer, which suggests that I'm maybe being a bit hasty.

Additionally, Puer passes to 6th and 10th house, suggesting that my career (I'm currently trying to get back into academia, one of the workplaces most notoriously hostile to wrongthink) and my health (both physical and mental, I suspect) need to be considered or will be impacted. The interpretation there seems pretty straightforward, too: wait until I'm in a better position in my life.

I also just noticed that Rubeus in the 7th house is in company demi-simple with Puer in the 8th, which could, I think, suggest that my romantic life also needs to be considered here.

All in all, I think this might be saying that what I need right now is to focus on the more mundane aspects of life, then come back to this later. (I'm reminded of the old rule that to study Cabala, you needed to be 40 years old and married. Obviously that's not true for everyone, but maybe I should adopt it for myself.) This seems to be born out by Projection of Points, which points to the 4th house, the house of home and settling down.

Interestingly, the Part of Fortune points to the 8th house, the house of magic itself -- perhaps a different sort of magic, like natural magic, or sigil or runic magic, is more my speed right now? -- but also of death. I admit that it had already occurred to me that the indication of trouble with the 6th house of health might mean that I'll know it's time to get serious about cabalistic magic when I have reason to think I'm not too long for this world.

My questions:

1a) Is there anything I've misunderstood or missed here?

1b) In particular, is the fact that Puer in the 6th and 10th are both in company capitular with Amissio significant? That would further indicate the risk of loss in those domains, as well emphasize the aspect of academia (9th house of higher education) -- not sure what exactly the significance of the 5th house is here.

2a) Since it looks like I'm going to be waiting on the Middle Pillar, should I also hold off on the LBRP, or would that be safe? I figure the egg's already cracked a little, so some form of regular banishing ritual would be useful.

2b) Would switching from the LBRP to the SoP be advisable?

3) Am I correct in thinking that remaining a speculative mage (i.e. continuing to read and perhaps medidate on this stuff) for now would be safe?

Re: Divination on Breaking the Egg

[ecosophia]

1) It looks to me as though it's saying that you're going to do it, whatever your current conscious intention may be, so you might as well get used to it. Having begun regular practice of the LBRP is generally enough.

"For mark! no sooner was I fairly found
Pledged to the plain, after a pace or two,
Than, pausing to throw backward a last view
O'er the safe road, 'twas gone; grey plain all round:
Nothing but plain to the horizon's bound.
I might go on; nought else remained to do."

2) Nope and nope.

3) Nope. You're already there having rushed ahead (Puer). That choice is no longer yours to make; all you can do is keep going.

Pisces and the Last Days

[(Anonymous)]

I think I found another astrological pattern in religious beliefs: a Piscean belief that we are living in the last age:

• this is the Kali Yuga (Hinduism)
  
• Mahavira was the last Tirthankara (Jainism)
  
• Mohammed is the last prophet (Islam)
  
• End of the world coming soon (Christianity; also John the Baptist being the last prophet)
  
• Joseph Smith opening last dispensation (Mormonism)
  
• this is the Dharma-Ending Age (Mahayana Buddhism)
  
• The Aztec belief (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Suns#Fifth_sun) that this age is the last one -- made possible only by the gods sacrificing themselves, and sustained by human sacrifice -- after which the world will be destroyed.
  

Mind you, the Mahavira one plausibly predates the Age of Pisces, since Jainism predates it, but as with many Buddhist doctrines, it seems like it would be hard to prove when that idea got added to the religion.

I think this one is straightforward: Pisces is the last Zodiac sign in the usual order.

Re: Pisces and the Last Days

[ecosophia]

That makes a great deal of sense!

[jprussell]

Good evening and thank you again for hosting. I tore through Retrotopia this week in a couple of days, your first fiction I've read, and I very much enjoyed it, so thanks for that as well!

As for questions, here goes:
1. To what degree have you found it helpful to treat the Planets as the same/different from the Gods and Goddesses whose names they bear? In other words, if I were to engage in some planetary charity for Jupiter, should there also be some prayer to Jupiter, king of the Roman pantheon? If I worship Gods that have an equivalent through the Interpretatio Romana, should I call on them?

2. Would a steel water bottle or cup be harmful in the long run, by rendering the water you drink etherically dead? If nothing else, I'm guessing they're not such a good option for the active water working in DMH!

3. I was re-reading "The Care of the Mind" recently, and you mentioned the correlation you've noticed between Unicorn Time, Dragon Time, Phoenix Time and the experience of spirits and magic. Any updates you are willing to share on that line of thinking or inquiry?

4. I know you're not a natal astrologer primarily, but do you know if there seems to be any astrological effect from being delivered by cesarean rather than "born of woman" in the usual way? I and my daughter were both "from the womb untimely ripp'd", and our natal charts seem pretty accurate, but I wonder if there are further considerations I should take into account.

5. What kind of etheric properties does concrete have as a building material, say, for a home? I've been looking into ways to passively cool homes, and apparently building them out of thermally dense materials (of which concrete seems to be one of the best) is one of the more effective ways, even in a humid climate. All the unpleasant Brutalist concrete buildings I've had the misfortune to enter have soured me on the material, but I wonder how much is the design, and how much the material itself.

Thanks very much,
Jeff

[ecosophia]

1) I don't usually worry about it, any more than Greeks of the Hellenistic period did -- they treated the planets as the bodies of the gods. Since I found my theological notions on the conviction that human beings can't actually know much of anything about the gods, I tend to avoid fine distinctions.

2) That's something that would need to be determined by experiment.

3) Not really, no.

4) I haven't encountered any reference to this.

5) Concrete can be a perfectly good material for building, though since it's Saturnine it needs to be balanced with other materials -- too much concrete feels leaden. I've been in buildings with concrete walls and wooden roofs, for example, that have been very pleasant.

[cutekitten]

🎼It’s just another Magic Monday 🎼

Seemed like it was about time for another round of applause for our host.

👏

[ecosophia]

Thank you.

[(Anonymous)]

As an exercise, I decided to memorize Tom Bombadil’s lines you quoted in your August the tenth open post. I was expecting it to be just a stage prop, but… it hefts like a steel sword instead of one of lath… Umm… Might you be persuaded to say a few words about Tolkien’s verse and his sources? Is there something more than a bit of anti-anxiety New Thought afoot here?

[jprussell]

Not JMG, obviously, but I am a big Tolkien fan. The first thing that comes to mind with Bombadil's verse is that it features a lot of alliteration, which is characteristic of Germanic poetry. Tolkien was the chair of Anglo-Saxon (what we now call "Old English") at Oxford and was intimately familiar with not only Old English poetry, but also the wider Germanic tradition (especially Norse), and his works are pervaded with themes and motifs drawn from that tradition.

Related to the above, Tolkien liked to use Germanic-derived words wherever possible. English is a Germanic language with a ridiculous number of French/Latin/Greek-derived vocabulary thanks to the Normans and the respect for the Classics of the Renaissance/Enlightenment. "Fancy" words tend to be French/Latin/Greek in origin, whereas "grounded" words tend to be Germanic - the classic example is that the animals the farmer tends are pigs and cows, but the meat the lord eats is pork and beef. Looking at the Bombadil quote, "vanish", "mountains", and "mended" are the only French-derived words in the passage.

Metrically, it looks like he might be using dactyls and spondees, which are the meter of Homeric Epic poetry. I haven't sat down and scanned it properly, but each line seems to be groups of either two or three syllables, which would fit. That would also give it a dramatic, powerful impact.

Happy to hear from our host and anyone else with more expertise on the matter!

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,
In the Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic, page 43 has the Double Triangle of Solomon. Each of the points has a symbol which is readily recognizable - alpha & omega, and the letters of the tetragrammaton. However, in the middle we find a T. I can't seem to find a discussion anywhere regarding the T or what it represents. Levi discusses the tetragrammaton; and alpha and omega are easy enough to comprehend. But, the T, I've never come across it before, though the Hanged Man is suspended from a T in the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. Maybe this is a magic 101 question, but can you please provide some background or direction regarding the T?
Thank you,
Will1000

[ecosophia]

The T is the Tau cross. Where other forms of the cross have a fourfold symbolism, the Tau cross is the threefold cross -- that's why the Gnostics used it, for example. If you look up the term "Tau cross" you'll find plenty of info.

[ivn66]

Hi JMG. Two questions for now -

1. Can etheric energies carry scents? I recently moved out of what I must imagine was the etherically filthiest living situation of my life. I was subletting a room in an apartment in a decrepit old NYC building, shared with the apartment’s owners, two elderly people who seemed to have completely given up on life, and consequently there was a strong energy of stagnancy and decay in the place. I won’t go into too much detail, but one of them hoarded books and took zero care of them, resulting in a deep musty smell that pervaded the entire unit. I had to burn incense and run an air purifier nearly 24/7 to make it livable (though I will say the strength of the unpleasant vibe in the place provided a wonderful incentive to practice banishing). Now, having relocated, I find that all the clothing I’d kept in that closet still carries a dingy, somewhat cloying smell I recognize from the old place, despite having washed it all thoroughly & repeatedly. I’ve asked friends (none of whom practice magic) if they smell anything and none of them do, but I still do. so I’m curious if what I’m smelling could be something that regular magical practice may have heightened my sensitivity to. Does that check out? Any idea what might be going on here?

2. I’d like to know your take on the system of tracking planetary days and hours outlined in the book of Abramelin. Have you ever tried it?

[ecosophia]

1) You may have one of the odder psychic gifts, the ability to use scent the way clairvoyants use sight. Banish repeatedly over the clothes and see if the scent changes.

2) Er, do you mean the one the author insists you should never use?

[ecosophia]

1) It takes practice and close attention!

2) Experiment with stopping it and letting it happen, and see what results you get.

3) Those are two of the 360 energy centers in your subtle body. They may need charging.

4) Different traditions interpret that differently. I don't tend to gender it, but your mileage may vary.

Rulership of odd animals

[(Anonymous)]

Of rodents are ruled by Virgo, what are bats ruled by?

Re: Rulership of odd animals

[ecosophia]

Aquarius, as the weird Air sign.

[reid_pnw]

JMG,

Two brief questions this week.

1. I've realized over the past few days that I’ve never been able to feel Auriel present properly during the LBRP. Like they're a bit absent compared to the others. This might be well trodden ground, so is there any sort of protocol for this? Prayer or offerings seem likely.

2. I’ve been enjoying a few of Dion Fortune’s novels lately. Can you point me towards any other fiction with similar, more ‘realistic’, uses of magic? I’ve heard a few people say your Weird of Hali series fits the bill, so that’s already high up on the priority list.

Oh, and w/r/t to the planetary charity stuff I asked about last week — Yeah, it turns out Saturn did just know about something that I didn’t yet. Was completely on the nose, and for pretty close to the same amount of money too. Glad he was kind enough to steer me in the right direction.

Cheers,
Reid

[ecosophia]

1) Many people have trouble perceiving one of the four elements or elemental angels. Yes, prayer might help, but you might also simply make an extra effort to build up his image as forcefully as you can.

2) Manly Wade Wellman's "Silver John" stories are good evocations of American folk magic. As for the Weird, those novels have a lot of occult symbolism in them but you may not want to take the gods and spells too literally. ;-)

[cutekitten]

JMG, to help those who are considering taking the plunge, or may stumble into it, in general, what changes can a person expect to see in himself once he breaks the egg?

[ecosophia]

Changes in yourself depend on how you react to the experience. The changes you can count on have to do with what you experience around you: you start to notice that there's a whole different dimension of things, not quite material but very real, which has been affecting you all along without your being aware of it. Now you're aware of it, and you can't go back to being oblivious of it.

Gods

[(Anonymous)]

I've been reading through Ovid's Metamorphoses to try to understand the gods I'm being drawn towards praying to, and I'm wrestling with a spiritual question. I'm not looking for an absolute answer so I don't have to do any thinking, I just wanted your perspective.

Why are the gods such bastards? The story of Athena rather cruelly punishing Medusa for the "crime" of being raped really did a number on me and made me call into question any respect I had for the gods. I understand that all the stories about Zeus getting it on with all the nymphs is a lurid metaphor for the fertility that rains down onto the Earth. What I can't understand is why the gods so cruelly punish mortals for their foolish and honest mistakes, or for accepting a favour from one god but not another, or just because they're jealous. Accidentally stumble upon Diana bathing? Doesn't matter that you admire her and are very sorry, you're gonna get turned into a stag and watch your own dogs disembowl you alive. Because screw you mortal.

This is all very distressing to me, because I thought the gods were...well, "good" I guess. Maybe they have to keep the balance of the universe by using nasty things like plagues and asteroid impacts, but they are trying to keep things in balance for some greater purpose, right? I thought of them as wise elders to look up to with admirstion and wonder. Most myths however, lurid penny-dreadful embellishments aside, seem to paint the gods as a bunch of immature tyrants that heap misery upon mortals for no reason whatsoever and reward loyalty with either a horrible death or a fate worse than death. Accepting a gift from a god can draw unending misery and horror from other gods, but refusing a gift can enrage the gift giver. It seems like the only rational choice is to treat them like the Sumerians treated demons of pestillence and plague - beg them to leave you alone, and pack up everything and flee when they won't.

I feel deep down that I must be mistaken somehow. Surely the divine is not petty and cruel. Surely the gods don't enjoy punishing mortals for the "crime" of being victimized by other gods.

Thus far I've resolved this conflict by believing that myths about victims being punished for being victims or children dying horrible deaths because of something their parents did are innaccurate, and that symbolic mysteries about nature have been twisted by one too many poets with political ambitions and the need to "put a new spin on things." What's your perspective?

Re: Gods

[ecosophia]

Ovid is not a source to read if you want to understand why people worshipped the Greek and Roman gods. He was a cynical old materialist who didn't believe in the gods, and for all the literary beauty of his work, in religious terms it's a bit like what you'd get if Sam Harris or some other famous atheist rewrote the Bible.

To the Greeks, the gods were not good in the sense of being moral, they were good in the sense of being excellent. Each one embodies one of the creative forces of the cosmos in its pure and intense form, which means they're very difficult to handle in the human world! The later Greek pagans argued that you should never take the myths literally -- "myths are things that never happened but always are," wrote Sallust, and he insisted that their very absurdity was made to wake up the mind and get you thinking about their real meanings.

Weird of Hali: an Experiment

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, I'm posting this here in the full knowledge that maybe it isn't the proper place for it, but I simply couldn't resist the impulse.
Just a few hours ago I had the inspiration to create a version of your Circle of Presence (with some bits of the Cross) but set in the Haliverse, just for fun -- I don't intend to use it, neither as a personal practice nor as a literary device, but if you like it, and maybe have some plans for it in future works, I hereby give you all rights to it, free of charge or any obligation, to use it as you see fit.
So, here is it...
--------------------------

THE OLD ONES' RUNE
(standing with feet together, facing North, hands resting at the sides)

1: Raise hands in an arc, joining them above the head, intoning or silently repeating:
"Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wagh’nagl fhtagn"

2: Move joined hands down, both thumbs touching nose's bridge, intone:
"The King is in Carcosa"
(see a golden crown just above your head, not touching it - it's the King's crown, not yours!)

3: Straighten both arms, hands still joined, resting just over womb/genitals forming a triangle pointing down, intone:
"The Goat is on the hills"
(see a green light at the pelvic area, feel a faint smell of musk/moss/earth)

4: Move arms at the sides forming a cross, intone:
"And there and back..."
then cross the arms over the chest, each hand resting at the opposite shoulder, intone:
"...the One in Black..."
(see a brief glimpse of the Black Pharaoh in the royal gesture of crossing arms)
then open the arms again at the cross posture, intone:
"...goes wand'ring where he wills"
(see the cross as the Crossroad where the Black Man stands)

5: Move both arms at the sides pointing down, head slightly facing down, intone:
"But deep below the ocean..."
(see a blue/green deep sea under you, and in its dark bottom, dimly seen, there R'lyeh lies)
then raise hands in front of chest, forming a cup/nest, intone:
"...the Dreaming Lord's asleep..."
(feel as if you're cradling Him in your hands)
then raise both hands above the head, spread their fingers, head slightly facing up, intone:
"...until the time when stars are right..."
(see a deep indigo starry sky above you, feel the stars slowly moving in their orbits)
and then move both hands down in an arc, joining in front of your womb, then rising together to the heart level, opening in an exultant attitude and moving up, body forming an Y, intone:
"...and call Him from the deep!"

6: Stay in the Y stance in contemplation for an instant, then join both hands in prayer over your heart and seal this working intoning softly:
"Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!"
(see the Elder Sign, a 5-pointed star, in the color and the tracing that sound right to you, have a deep breath, release the gesture and sight)
----------------------
Under the many-tentacled oaks,

Endovelicon
São Paulo, Brazil
endovelicon@yahoo.com

Re: Weird of Hali: an Experiment

[ecosophia]

Hmm! Thanks for this. I plan on leaving the chant as a hopscotch rhyme, however. ;-)

Anti-Love Potion? ;-)

[wonderingmagic]

Any simple advice for someone who has read and devoted a lot of thought to your writings and theories, but hasn't faithfully practiced very much... for ways to perhaps break, or challenge, the spell of love?
I'm not interested in controlling my friend's free will, and I think ultimately he should love whom he pleases, so I am looking for a low-level, moment-of-clarity type of effect, not a compulsion or anything of the sort. Just perhaps, ways to induce a wake-up call.
I don't want to go into a lot of personal details, I hope generic details will suffice.
A friend of mine seems to have fallen deeply in love with a woman, but after a couple of years of long-distance electronic communications and brief, chaste visits... when they began enjoying physical intimacy, he did her an inarguable wrong. It wasn't pregnancy, it wasn't malice, but he did her a wrong and he should have been smarter.
She became incensed and, to my view, obsessed with punishing him. I know for a fact that he has been trying to atone and apologize to her for four months solid, but she keeps loudly telling anyone who will listen that he only thinks of himself and that he refuses to even begin the process of atonement. She has become so obsessed with punishing him that she has camped out on his doorstep for as long as a half a day, waiting for him to open the door, and when he invites her in, she engaged in minor-league violence (throwing things at him), which he did not return, and rifled through his private papers in search of evidence that he is a serial abuser of women. (I don't believe he is). On different occasions he has had to call the police to get her to leave his house. (She tended to leave before they arrive.)
Again to anyone who will listen, she calls him the worst kind of abuser, talks about how he has zero empathy (totally false) and how he is maliciously manipulating her. But she will not let him go, "Break up" or leave him alone, because, she says, too many of the previous men in her life who have abused her, have walked away scott free, and she's drawing the line here. She will not rest until he atones to her satisfaction, but he's been trying hard for four months and she disregards all his efforts utterly.
After all that, to this day, _still_ whenever he talks to me about her, he privileges her point of view above his own. "Well, I can see why she feels that way, I did her wrong, well we have new definitions of abuse and abuse can be totally passive and we don't want to normalize this kind of passive abuse between men and women." (As you can probably tell, he's a bit "woke" and considers himself a feminist.)
He lives far away from me, but calls me regularly for support. For a brief period I was communicating electronically with the woman, and I tried my best to be conciliatory and give her the ears she so desperately says she needs, and provide the both of them with a conciliatory perspective. I've given up on that, at this point, and I would just like him to wake up to the need to take some kind of, any kind of, defensive action in his own favor instead of constantly submitting to her. She's had a hard life and I'm not interested in punishing her, but someone has to break this deadlock.
Is there any simple magic I can perform which might aid, even slightly, to break one or the other or both of them out of this infinite loop they've locked themselves in?
I am very grateful, in advance, for your answer.

Re: Anti-Love Potion? ;-)

[ecosophia]

Unless you have the consent of at least one of them, no, there's nothing you can do. Consent is as essential in magic as it is in sex.

Child Roland and the Dark Tower

[(Anonymous)]

Above you quoted to me a verse from Robert Browning's "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came." I had to look that up, since I'd either never read the poem before, or read it for a literature class assignment that I was paying no attention to.

The version I found and read: https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/browning/section8/

Ignoring the pretentious modernist hogwash that is the commentary...

It clicked as I read stanzas XI and XII that the gray plain was not some alien landscape into which Roland had been tricked: it's the real world after you see through the illusion of conventionality. The safe road never existed.

I'm assuming that Browning was no stranger to occultism -- many artists of that era seem to have been up to their eyeballs in it. I feel like the poem has more secrets to unlock. (In particular, I'd have expected one more inversion of the landscape, following the blowing of the horn: from wasteland back to lush green, representing both Rolande's mastery of himself and his newfound wisdom: "to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time." But then, the horn is not the grail...)

Re: Child Roland and the Dark Tower

[ecosophia]

The poem has a great deal to unlock, but it's not a conventional poem. Browning liked to write poems that express a particular emotional state with extraordinary richness and precision, and he was also writing with an eye toward other poetry -- behind Childe Roland lies the whole panoply of Victorian Arthuriana, full of fake emotion and fake glory. So he showed the state of mind, moment by moment, of the weary, battered, driven knight who finally accomplishes his quest. That last sentence in quotes is what the romance tells; the rest is what it was actually like at the time...

Making Amulets

[kimberlysteele]

Dear JMG and Ecosophia readers,

I've got some supplies as well as some dried peppers I grew last year that were far too hot to eat (Carolina reapers) and I'm going to be making about 20 or so red bag amulets with what I have. I will happily send anyone an amulet for free in the continental US. It's obviously first come, first serve. I feel it's the very least I can do for the readers of JMG blogs who have been supporting me with prayers, money, and book donations. Please email me at k steele studio at gmail if you'd like one.

You can also get a free Ogham reading at my blog as usual, I have been doing them once a week on Mondays. http://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org

Speaking of books, I have recently gone live with the subscription library. Approximately 550 books are available for checkout. Lots of occult and astrology titles and some good sci fi as well. For now, it's only online, but as I say to my beginning music students... Ya gotta start somewhere.

https://www.patreon.com/athenareadersclub

Re: Making Amulets

[(Anonymous)]

Kimberly - this is The Grey Badger- and I'll take an amulet, with thanks. email me at mathews55@msn.com for snail mail address.

Roman Pantheon for SoP

[sun_lion]

Hi, JMG.

I’ve been learning the Sphere of Protection as described here on your Dreamwidth journal. The transition from monotheism to polytheism is proving a little rocky, and I’ve been having some difficulty choosing a pantheon. Most of my training so far has come from EoNM, and I have become comfortable with the planetary deities. Would you be willing to identify which Roman gods go with which parts of the SoP?

With thanks,
sun_lion

Re: Roman Pantheon for SoP

[ecosophia]

Sure -- I assume you want old Roman and not Romanized Greek. These are the ones I would assign:

East: Mavors (Mars)
West: Minerva
South: Vesta
North: Venus
Below: Veiovis
Above: Jupiter

I'd use this because the old obscure earth god Veiovis has such fascinating Indo-European origins. If you don't care about that, here's another option:

East; Mavors
West: Quirinus
South: Vesta
North: Venus
Below: Ceres
Above: Jupiter

[ecosophia]

I just had to delete an otherwise good question because of profanity. Please keep it clean -- this is an all ages journal!

[(Anonymous)]

Several observations and questions on current events:

The Taliban took over a vast swath of territory while the moon was waxing from the Lunation on August 8, culminating with the capture of Kabul mere hours before the first quarter moon perfected. The presidential palace was turned over around 7 EDT Aug. 15. Does this time mark an inaugural time for their rule, or is it still in the dying interregnum of the old government, before a Taliban scheduled ceremony due sometime soon?

Something that is odd about this Taliban takeover is that they have conducted themselves like a war band that transformed into a secret society. When the moment was right, a large number of back channels were activated that let everyone who could possibly stop the Taliban advance to yield their ground, leaving the clueless upper crust in the dark.

It needs to be looked into a bit more, but the lunation chart of August 8 1:50 utc was rather odd in that indicated that perhaps the Taliban had already had power transferred over at that time.

[(Anonymous)]

Not the OP, but has anybody else felt an improvement in astral conditions since the fall of Kabul? As though a lot of toxic illusions have suddenly been dispelled?

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Archdruid:
Beforehand I want to thank you for appearing in our lives, it was dark and this blog helped us to seek for the light with new approaches unacceptable for our society.
I'm doing the octagon fist step that you published a couple of weeks ago, and found very interesting outcomes, first, my dad whom I thought all my life had taken his life because he was depressed, when I started writing the blame list to him, it made me remember things that I blocked some how and made me feel that he didn't kill himself, he was killed, and then when I started writing my mother's list, I found that I blamed her for doing me a lot of the things she did to him while he was in his last year's with us.
The day after I finished with my mother's list, the woman that found my dad dead phoned me, we were talking about life and out of the blue she started talking about that day, so I asked what happened, to shorten the story, she told me a very different event to the one my mother repeated to us, her children, for over 20 years, and I'm afraid she lied because I went to the Justice Department and there is no file of the incident (my mother's father was a very powerful lawyer at that time in my country) so, I don't have where to go for an answer, and the tarot(celtic cross is what I am learning to read) doesn't give me a clear one.
Could you please guide me, I need to stop blaming my dad for many things he didn't do, in case he didn't end his life as I thought, is another divination method better for this kind of questions.
My relationship with my mother is null, but to find the truth would help me feel less guilty about choosing to have no contact with her.

I just need some peace of mind, some guidance perhaps.

Thanks again
Your's truly

V.

[ecosophia]

First of all, please accept my condolences. That's got to be really rough to go through.

Second, I'd encourage you to keep writing about that. Take an extra week or more if you need to. Get it out on paper, including all your feelings about your father's death and your mother's behavior. Dealing with those emotions will help you deal with the rest of your life.

Third, it's very challenging to do divination for yourself on an issue this emotionally loaded. Do you know anyone who's good at divination, who might be able to cast a reading for you?

Social Justice vs. the God of Justice

[(Anonymous)]

Man, what is it with the woke going out of their way to disrespect the gods?

https://twitter.com/thomaschattwill/status/1426266720898068480

A NYT piece looks at Titian's artwork through the lens of modern sexual ethics, almost casually describing Jupiter as "a serial abuser."

It seems like, having failed to press the gods into the service of their political agenda*, they're now turning away from them and going so far as to ally themselves with Aztec demons. I have to wonder if this is how the Aztecs got into demon-worship in the first place, and we're just seeing history repeat itself (which itself has some interesting implications for the future).

* Compare and contrast this with the situation on the Chans, where in 2016 Kek came to them of his own initiative, while in 2020 the attempt to force the "gets" with scripts backfired messily.

Re: Social Justice vs. the God of Justice

[ecosophia]

Given that a mural of George Floyd got struck by lightning a little while ago, I really, truly think they might want to avoid irritating Jove the Thunderer...

[(Anonymous)]

Is it possible for carry-over effects after stopping spiritual practices even if they were only done for a couple months?

[ecosophia]

Yes, especially if you did spiritual work in a previous life.

[(Anonymous)]

which Annunaki deity's are a good choice to use in the Sphere of Protection, from the Druid Magic Handbook.

[ecosophia]

That's not a pantheon I know anything about, so I'm sorry to say I can't advise you.

Is this raspberry jam?

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG, I just heard today that, that female comedian who did the trump head thing,
(I think most would know what I'm talking about) has lung cancer and had surgery to remove part of her lung.
When our elders used to say, if you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything, they might have been on to something...
FWIW, For her and her family and friends sake, I wish her well.
Helen in Oz 🙏

Re: Is this raspberry jam?

[(Anonymous)]

A lot of people predicted that Kathy Griffin would get blowback for that tasteless "joke" she did.

Divination about anti-covid vaccines

[(Anonymous)]

Hello!

A few weeks back, there was a curious discussion about divination and vaccines whereby queries about vaccines was tainted in favour of the latter.
Can you elaborate and inform us whether the case is still so?
Regards

Re: Divination about anti-covid vaccines

[lp9]

I posted this several days ago on the COVID thread. No idea if this is accurate, but this is my experience:

There has been some discussion about interference with divination regarding the vaccines. I asked the runes a number of questions about that interference tonight and they returned some very interesting answers.

The runes indicated that yes, something was interfering with divinations about the vaccines, but my divinations were not disturbed ("Were my divinations about the vaccines free from interference?" And received Gebo upright). Since I'm not even that good with the runes yet, I followed up asking if all divinations with the runes were free from tampering and got "yes" through Gebo upright again (a gift, love, generosity, etc.). I asked why the runes were free from interference and received Algiz upright (protection, possibly divine protection).

If anyone else works with the runes, I'd be curious to hear your results from similar readings. If there is some sort of divergence in different divination tools, that would be fascinating.